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PULGA, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 12: Water drops are made on the fire line burning around PG&E transmission towers, Monday, November 12, 2018, east of Pulga,Calif. The deadly Camp Fire was first reported burning a few miles west up Highway 70. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

PG&E believes its equipment will likely be found to be the cause of the Camp Fire, an inferno that scorched Butte County in November 2018 and became the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, the embattled power provider said Thursday.

That grim prognosis — PG&E’s first official acknowledgement that it believes its equipment is likely the cause of the lethal Camp Fire — was contained in PG&E’s fourth quarter and full year financial report, which the disgraced utility released Thursday.

“The company believes it is probable that its equipment will be determined to be an ignition point of the 2018 Camp Fire,” PG&E stated in an assessment that was a key component of its full-year and fourth-quarter of 2018 financial results.

PG&E took a $10.5 billion pre-tax charge connected to claims arising from the Camp Fire that was recorded against the company’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2018 as well as all of 2018.

In addition, the company also took a $1 billion pre-tax charge linked to claims arising from the October 2017 infernos in the North Bay Wine Country and nearby regions. That was in addition to a previous charge of $2.5 billion for those blazes. The new charge was specifically connected to the Atlas and Cascade fires of 2017.

The utility, which is already a convicted felon after being found guilty for crimes it committed before and after a fatal natural gas explosion that killed eight and destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood in 2010, pointed to four key developments for its downcast assessment of its involvement in the Camp Fire.

The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has posted coordinates on the Cal Fire web site for the Camp Fire origin that are near a PG&E transmission tower on the company’s Caribou-Palermo complex of transmission lines, stating the blaze began at 6:33 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2018.

Second, at 6:15 a.m., the Caribou-Palermo line de-energized and at 6:30 a.m., a PG&E employee reported that a fire was burning near the tower.

Third, later in November, PG&E observed and array of damage at the transmission tower, including broken equipment, signs of worn components and a flash mark.

Fourth, at 6:45 a.m on Nov. 8, nearby PG&E facilities known the Big Bend Circuit experienced a power failure.

“PG&E employees subsequently patrolling the (Big Bend Circuit) location observed damage to the pole and equipment and downed wires,” PG&E said. “Although CAL FIRE has identified this location as a potential ignition point, based on the condition of the site PG&E has not been able to determine whether the Big Bend Circuit may be a probable ignition point.”

The Caribou-Palermo circuit has been taken out of service in the wake of the Butte Count firestorm, which essentially destroyed the town of Paradise. The 56-mile line was de-energized in December 2018.

“Preliminary results from the enhanced inspections on this transmission line have identified some equipment conditions that require repair or replacement,” PG&E stated.